The Web
by frochez
Summary: Iron Spider brings together a group of superhumans from the fringes of the Marvel Universe to form a new organisation: The Web. Lurking in the shadows, striking without warning, vanishing into the darkness. Together with Dragon Man, Lady Mastermind , and Alpha,the Iron Spider plans to save the world from any and all threats, including those who consider themselves its protectors.


_All characters are property of Marvel Comics._

**The Raft, Mastermind**

Breakfast had been served about an hour ago, by Martinque's reckoning. She sat on her bunk, an old paperback book open in front of her. She read a page, slowly, trying to savor the feeling of each word in her mind. When she had finished, she closed the cover, and leant her head back against the wall. She was only allowed access to the prison library once every two weeks. If she read a single page every hour, the book would last her until then.

She could hear one of the wardens moving slowly down the corridor outside, calling out the names of prisoners lucky enough to be allowed- and to receive- mail. Martinique closed her eyes.

'Jason, letter!' Martinique sat up on her narrow bed as the slim envelope was slipped through the hatch to land with a soft _thip _on the stone floor of her cell. Plain white paper. She tore it open slowly, savouring the sensation. The message inside was written in the same hand as the address on the front; completely alien to her.

_Dear Marty, _

_How are you? Silly question, I know, but I've felt so bad about not coming to visit, and I don't really know where to begin with all this. Just don't go crazy. I hope they're treating you well; some of the stories about what happens to mutants in jail are so terrible. They say that some inmates can't even go to the exercise area, or that they don't even have a window in their cell. I suppose all I can really do is tell you how I'm doing._

_Well, I'm fine and dandy. I managed to escape all of that madness between the x-men and the avengers, and I'm living in Madripor now. You wouldn't believe it, Marty. It's like a mutant paradise here. A proper one, without everyone looking over their shoulders every five minutes in case of a sentinel attack. I'm even working with the island's government. You'll never guess who's in charge; our old pal Raven. I know, right? I'm going to try and pull some strings to see if I can't get you out early, or at least transferred over here. Of course, it's a new government, and the US isn't the best about extradition. Still, I'll do my best, so be ready to go._

_Please write back to me and let me know that you're ok. I'll send you some chocolates or something, if you tell me what you want._

_Your loving sister and friend,_

_Regan._

Martinique glared at the paper. Regan hated her, and the feeling was mutual. She had been in prison for nearly two years now, and this was the first time her sister had made contact. And 'Marty'? What was she trying to pull?

Martinique started to crumple the paper into a ball, and paused. No one had called her 'Marty'. Ever. Her eyes flickered over the page again. She blinked. The ink had faded where she had touched it, leaving holes in the type. She placed the letter on the floor and knelt down in front of it, carefully drawing her hands across the paper. With each pass, more of the writing vanished, until only a few words remained:

_Dear Marty, _

_ coming to visit, __  
_

_ go to the _

_ window __  
_

_ in _

_ five minutes _

_ I'm going to __get you out __  
_

_Your __friend,_

Martinque blinked. Then she was up on her feet, scanning the room. Prisoners weren't allowed much in the way of home comforts, especially mutant prisoners. She swept the few toiletries she owned into a bag, and retrieved a worn diary from beneath the thin mattress. She pulled an old photograph from the wall, slipping it between the pages of the book.

The first explosion rocked the building as she closed the book. It was followed shortly by a second, and a third. Feet pounded down the corridor outside, nearly masked by the high-pitched wail of the sirens that began to scream through every room in the building.

Well, whoever this was, they were hardly being subtle.

Martinique turned to the window to see that a green, glowing mist was pouring between the bars. The fog stopped a few feet from the window, forming a sphere that was just large enough to fit one person. Another explosion hit the building, sending a small shower of concrete dust from the ceiling.

She hesitated for barely a second. On the one hand, she had no idea who- or what- might be waiting for her if she stepped into the mist. On the other, she was a prisoner, held with only the briefest of sham trials, and who knew how long it would be before they let her go?

Martinique stepped into the mist.

For a moment her whole body was weightless, the sounds of the sirens and the yelling outside of her cell fading to nothing. She felt calm, blissful, beautiful.

And then her body lurched to the side, and she screamed as waves of hot and cold ripped across her skin. It was like she was freezing and burning all at the same time. She was being spun round, and she clamped her jaw tight to fight the urge to vomit.

She landed on her knees, her whole body shaking, gasping for breath.

'Hello, Marty,' said a voice. It was not one that she knew. Martinique forced her eyes open, looking up into a pair of golden eyes that reflected her own terrified face back at her.

'So nice of you to join us,' the man said.

**New York, Alpha**

'Spider-man,'

'Huh?' Andy said, looking up from his phone. Something was happening with the Avengers on Mars. He tried not to think about it. Mike sat opposite him, toying with the remains of his iced coffee. It was the first decent day of the year, and Mike and Sophie had invited him to the local coffee shop. And it wasn't like Andy had the luxury of picking and choosing his friends.

'Worst superhero ever,' Mike said. 'It's got to be spider-man.'

'What about those kids on Murder World?' Sophie asked. She brushed her electric blue hair out of her eyes, her gaze focussed on the skateboarders across the street.

'You mean the kids that ended up killing each other, and then ran off to join the Masters of Evil? They don't count,' said Mike.

'Why not?' said Andy.

'Um, because they killed each other and joined the masters of Evil. Not heroes, villains.'

'Still, Spider-man sucks,' Sophie said.

'Not as bad as that Omega kid,' Mike said, slurping his drink noisily.

'Who?' Sophie asked. Her gaze flicked to Andy, whose head was already buried in his phone.

'Omega,' said Mike. 'Remember, the one who was advertising those crappy phones a few years ago?'

'You mean Alpha,' Sophie said through gritted teeth.

'Nah, it was definitely Omega. Right, Andy?' Mike turned to the other boy.

'Uh, sure. Whatever. I've gotta go,' Andy shrugged his jacket on and left the table.

'Dude, you're such an idiot,' Sophie said, when the other boy was out of earshot.

'What?' Mike asked.

'Seriously? You want to ask Andy- _Andrew Maguire_- if Alpha is the worst superhero ever?'

'Yeah? So?'

'So, Andy _is _Alpha,' Sophie grimaced. 'Or was, anyway.'

'You're kidding,' Mike said.

'Nope,'

'Well,' he said, watching the blond figure disappear into the crowds. 'Damn.'

**Utopia, Off the coast of San Francisco**

She stood on the rocks, allowing the sun to soak into her skin. It had been, what, four days since she'd last seen the sky? She sighed, pulling her dirty brown hair back from her face as she turned it upwards.

'Torpid? Laura, what are you doing?' She spun round. Bugs stood in the cave entrance, his mandibles chattering in anxiety. It scuttled forwards, keeping low to the ground.

'Get back in the tunnels, before someone sees you,' he said, picking up her gloves with one limb and handing them to her.

'Like who? No-one comes anywhere near here anymore,' she said, slipping the gloves over her oversized hands.

'You can't know that. SHIELD have eyes everywhere,' Bugs said, pulling her gently underground. 'It's safer to stay below.'

'What about the monster?' she asked, hesitating at the cave entrance.

'Come on, Torpid,' Bugs said. 'Even the x-men don't come here anymore. We're the only monsters left on this island.'

'I know what I saw,' Torpid muttered, as she followed him into the shadows.

**New York, Alpha**

The sirens were getting louder.

Andy stood at the corner, waiting for the lights to change. There was a girl coming down the opposite street, sweat beginning to soak through her shirt as her trainers pounded along the pavement. He tried not to stare. Around him, people were craning this way and that, trying to work out where the noise was coming from. He knew from experience that people were as likely to run towards a disaster zone as they were to run away from it.

Andy clenched his fists, and turned the music up. It was no use, he could hear the noise of the approaching police cars through the pounding music of his headphones. He had liked having powers once, but now he hated it. Every time his enhanced strength accidentally crushed a glass, every time his super speed wore a hole in his shoes, it all came screaming back to him. And the worst thing was that he still wanted it. Deep down, a hero was all he'd ever wanted to be. And he'd thrown it all away for the chance to be the face of a crappy phone company.

The van screeched past him in an off-white blur, followed by a pair of police cars. Andy watched as they raced towards the end of the street, weaving between Saturday morning traffic. _Let them get on with it, _he thought. _It's none of your business. Just let them-_

The girl wasn't looking at the street. Like Andy, she was plugged into her headphones, her gaze alternating between the pavement in front of her and face of her sports watch as she sprinted towards the curb. She stepped off-

Andy slammed into her, knocking the girl out of the path of the van. They carried on across the street, smashing through the window of a clothes store. Andy turned his body so that he hit the glass first, the girl cushioned against his chest. They landed in the middle of the store, the girl on top of him.

'You-what-' the girl stammered, her headphones falling from her ears. Outside, the van and police cars carried on oblivious, disappearing around the corner.

'What,' Andy looked up into the cold face of the store manager. The store was full of customers, all of them staring at the wreckage. 'What the hell did you do?'

'I-I-' Andy stammered, clambering to his feet.

'You destroyed my store!'

'No I-'

'I think my wrist's broken,' the girl said, sitting up and clutching her hand. She started to sob quietly, and then louder.

'I'm calling the police,' the manager said. But Andy was already gone.

**The Baxter Building**

'Come one, we need to get going,' The Thing called from the cockpit. 'Five minutes until the eggs hatch.'

'Susan, send a message to Dragon-Man,' Mr Fantastic said, as he slid into his seat. 'He'll need to take the kids to the park.'

'He's not in the building,' his wife said, looking up from her own screen.

'Four minutes until the eggs hatch,' The Thing said.

'What?' Reed Richards turned to look at the Invisible Woman.

'He's not in the building,' Susan repeated.

'Come one, guys,' The Human Torch said, drumming his fingers on the dashboard. 'Immanent invasion of hatchling alien monsters.'

'We can't just leave the kids unsupervised, Johnny.'

'H.E.R.B.I.E. and the Mom-bots can handly it,' Ben said. 'Let's go!'

'I'll see if Ms Thing or Squirrel Girl can check in later,' Susan said, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

'Where the hell is that dragon?' Mr Fantastic muttered, as the fantasticar rose out of the hangar.

**New York, Alpha**

Andy slammed the door behind him, dropping his rucksack in the cramped entrance hall and pushing his way into his bedroom.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid. _He wasn't a hero. He _Couldn't be _ a hero. Every time, something went wrong. He could have killed that little girl. He'd promised Parker and Spiderman that he wouldn't-

Andy stopped, his stomach dropping through his knees. The green and black uniform was laid out on his bed. Unable to bring himself to throw it away, he'd hidden the suit in the back of his closet. There was a business card on the chest of the suit. Andy picked it up, brushing the sticky strands that kept it adhered to the fabric. A simple web pattern covered the front. There was an address and a time printed on the back in block capitals. Beneath, two words:

_BE THERE_

**Location Unknown**

Andy- Alpha- hung over the building. He pulled at the fabric of the suit. It had been over a year since he'd last worn it, and the fabric was uncomfortably tight. He descended slowly, landing in a crouch on the building's edge. A nearby door was open invitingly, with a staircase that led into the building below.

The stairs ended in a large hall. A table stood in its centre. One side of the room was covered in electrical equipment, with several large screens showing the exterior of what looked like a prison. A man stood dressed in a familiar red and gold suit. Behind him stood a… thing. Andy blinked. The creature was massive, with purple skin, a tail, and a pair of leathery, bat-like wings. He recognised it from somewhere. Something to do with the Fantastic Four, or was it the Future Foundation.

The view on one of the screens changed. It now showed a prison cell, with a pretty, brown-haired woman in an orange jumpsuit standing in tis centre, reading something. Andy hung back in the shadows, watching as the woman began to move around the room, before heading towards the small window at one end of the room.

There was a flash of green light, and the woman vanished from the screen, appearing in the centre of the room. She swayed slightly, falling to her knees.

'Hello Marty. So nice of you to join us.' said the man in the red and gold uniform. He turned towards the door, and Andy shrank back into the shadows. 'You can come in, Alpha. We're all friends here.'

'What's going on here?' Andy demanded, in what he hoped was an authoritative voice.

'Wh-who are you people?' the woman murmured, struggling to her feet.

'Ah yes,' the man said. He flicked his wrist, and the room was suddenly filled with light. Andy saw, for the first time, that the table was decorated with a spider web pattern, like a bull's-eye. The light glinted off the gold highlights of the man's armour.

'My apologies for the subterfuge,' said the Iron Spider. 'Welcome to the Web.'

**Somewhere Else Entirely**

Her bare feet crunched in the snow. The sky above her head was solid black. It was too cold to snow. It was cold enough to kill a man. Luckily, she was no man. In the distance something began to howl.

**The Web, New York**

'Can I get you anything?' The Iron Spider asked. 'A drink? Something to eat?'

'You can start be telling me what the Hell is going on,' Martinique said, her hands placed firmly on her hips.

'Yeah, who are you people?' Andy joined in. He'd meant to sound tough, but his voice cracked on the final word. Way to look macho. The woman glared at him, and he blushed.

'All in good time, Martinique. You should at least change into something more comfortable and less… prison-y,' said the Iron Spider, settling into one of the chairs around the large table.

'If you head through that door and turn left, you'll find a room with some clothes laid out,' the man pointed to an inconspicuous door to one side. 'The same goes for you, Alpha. Second room along.'

'Why me?' Andy asked, as the woman flounced out of the room.

'Because at the moment your costume is associated with those hideous phones. You may even want to change your codename, but there'll be time for that later. The Web requires something more subtle. Why use a machine gun when a scalpel can be so much more delicate?'

'Uh,' Andy said.

'Just go,' the man said, waving his hand dismissively.

'Not the most promising start, is it?' Dragon Man asked, sitting next to his companion. The chair had been designed specifically to hold his weight, and the steel still groaned slightly beneath him.

'Oh, I don't know,' the Iron Spider said. Dragon Man suspected that if he could see beneath the mask, the man would be smiling.

'I think there's something we can work with.'

**Utopia, Off the coast of San Francisco**

'We need to find something to plug that leak,' Bugs said, as they dodged around the thin trickle of water in the middle of the passage.

'With what?' Torpid asked.

'We'll find something,' Bugs said. 'Stuff's always washing up on the shore. I'll go out tonight to have a look.'

'Or we could just look now?' Laura asked.

'You want to end up in a SHIELD cell?'

'At least it would be dry,' she muttered. There was a crash behind her.

'Bugs?' She spun. A section of the floor had caved in behind her. It happened all the time; Utopia had never been the most stable of structures, and without the constant upkeep of the X-men, the former mutant sanctuary was quickly deteriorating. But it was fine; Bugs could climb, better than Spiderman. Or so he claimed.

'Bugs?' she called into the darkness. Something stirred beneath her.

'Bug? Are you ok?' The ground trembled, and Torpid leapt backwards as the hole widened.

It rose towards her, a huge tentacle of flesh and twisted metal.

Torpid screamed.

**The Web, New York**

'This had better be some sort of joke,'

Andy returned to the large room to find that Martinique was already there, her palms pressed against the table as she glared at Iron Spider. The orange jumpsuit was gone, replaced by a tight-fitted white jumpsuit. A fur-lined coat, also white, was flung over one chair with- Andy did a double-take- a gun in a white holster.

'I'm no White Queen,' the woman snarled at Iron Spider.

'And why not? Miss Frost is no longer using the name, and you do have family connections with the Hellfire Club,' Iron Spider said.

'Emma Frost is a psychotic dominatrix, and my father was probably the worst person I've ever met. What makes you think that I'd want anything to do with either of them, or the secret society that tried to use a mad space bird to take over the world?'

'Hmm, fair enough. Would you prefer something in black?' Iron Spider snapped his fingers, and Martinique's outfit turned from white to grey to black. Only the fur collar of the jacket remained white.

'Wow,' Andy breathed.

'Ah, Alpha,' Iron Spider said, turning to the boy. 'Good of you to join us. You're not going to complain about your costume, are you? This isn't a tailors, you know.'

'What? Oh, no. It's fine,' Alpha looked down at his own body. The costume was almost the same as his original, with the green panels replaced with red. There was a black mask, which was a welcome addition, with a red 'alpha' symbol over the right eye. Finally, Iron Spider had added a belt, with the same 'alpha' symbol forming the buckle.

'Well, that's a relief,' said Iron Spider. He gestured to two of the empty seats at the table. Martinique and Alpha took their seats. There were two more, both left empty.

'I suppose we're waiting for someone else?' Martinique asked.

'Hmm? Oh, no,' Iron Spider said. 'We will hopefully be adding to our roster later, but all things in good time.'

'So, this is the part where you tell us why we should trust you?' the woman asked.

'You should trust me, Marty, because if not for me you would still be in a prison cell, awaiting trial indefinitely for undisclosed crimes,' Iron Spider said. Martinique glared at him.

'And what about me?' Alpha asked.

'Oh, you're here because you've got potential, my boy,' said the Iron Spider. 'No-one else may be able to see it, but I certainly can. Together, we'll-'

'We'll what?' Martinique interrupted. 'We'll rule the world? Destroy it? Save it?'

'Third time's the charm, my dear.'

'May I?' Dragon Man cut in, speaking for the first time.

'Absolutely,' Iron Spider said. Dragon Man rose to his feet. Alpha blinked. Up close, the creature was much taller, possibly eight feet tall, not including the wings.

'I began life as what most of you would consider a villain. That was my purpose; it was how I was created, and how I acted.' Dragon Man pressed a button concealed on the table's surface, and the screens that covered one wall lit up. Alpha recognised the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation. The largest image was a close-up of Reed Richards with a blond-haired girl sat on his lap.

'However, a few years ago I was inducted into Reed Richards' Future Foundation, an organisation designed with one simple purpose: 'Fix Everything.' In the process, my mind was… evolved by Richards' daughter, Valeria. Specifically, I was designated as an extra guardian, a teacher and protector for the children of the Foundation.' Dragon Man paused, his gaze locking on the Iron Spider.

'I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for them. For Bentley and Valeria and all of them. How many times did Richards fail us? How many times did his secrets leave us vulnerable? How many times did his actions put us in jeopardy? No one seems to see it except for me. The rest of the Future Foundation and the Fantastic Four are too in awe of his intelligence to see his faults. Dr Doom is too consumed by jealousy and rage to acknowledge the bigger picture. Someone has to be there, to step in when Mr Fantastic finally goes too far. And if that person has to be me, then so be it.'

'Are you insane?' Alpha broke in. 'You want to kill Mr Fantastic?'

'No one's killing anyone,' Iron Spider said. 'Not yet, anyway.'

The images on the screen changed. Alongside the Fantastic Four were the X-men, several teams of Avengers, even figures that Alpha vaguely recognised as belonging to Alpha Flight and Excalibur.

'The world is full of heroes,' he said, as a slideshow began, with different lineups and teams appearing in turn on the screens. 'Men and women of incredible power and bravery. People sworn to protect humanity at any cost. And that's part of the problem. At. Any Cost.' The photos changed, one by one, until all showed scenes of destruction. Alpha could make out the wreckage of Atlan in the Hudson river, the ruins of Utopia of the West Coast, and several other destroyed towns.

'Sometimes the means doesn't justify the ends. The Avengers have lost sight of what's important. They think themselves gods, not men. Every day, they put people in danger. And that cannot be.'

'So you want to take down the Avengers?' Martinique asked.

'No, no,' Iron Spider shook his head, laughing. There was something oddly mechanic about the sound from behind his mask.

'I want to save the world from the Avengers.'


End file.
